The Artist And Her Muse

new painting from "the tongue out series" 8x10 inches, oil on cradled panel

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self conscious and anything self conscious is lousy. You cant try to do things. You simply must do things.

Ray Bradbury

Painters don't reason, they do. The moment they reason they are lost ----- subconscious thought counts.

Charles Hawthorne

There is this sense that the artist is putting herself on the receiving end when she is making a work of art. It is as if she becomes the conduit that this mystery travels through. Thinking can really mess this up. It would be wrong to say that artists are not constantly making decisions - because they are, but these choices being made are coming in from a subconscious level. It is as if the painting is painting itself when it is done well. This is where the idea of the muse becomes important. The idea that we are visited in our studios by something outside ourselves - that is there to help us. It is not really just the artist anymore, but the artist and her muse together, that bring us this beautiful work.